Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I support the noble Lord, Lord Pendry, on this amendment. I thank the Minister and his colleagues for the consultations and time that we have spent debating this outside your Lordships’ House. We have had meetings with not only the Home Office but also with the Minister of Sport and others. I am comfortable that the Government are moving to correct what I am sure was an unintended error leading to unintended consequences, which has brought us to where we are. My major concerns are twofold. First, there are a lot of sporting events being stewarded without licences, which are therefore technically in breach of the law. I understand that private agreements have been reached between police forces, or whichever are the necessary authorities, and these organisations. But that is not a satisfactory state of affairs. The noble Lord, Lord Pendry, has made most of the key points. But the second point that I would like to enforce is that it is clearly a case of over-regulation, which I know was unintended—at least I believe that it was unintended. I hope that at Report stage, the Minister will reassure us of that by bringing forward his own amendment. If the Government do not see their way to doing that, life will be very difficult in the sporting world. In part, that will be because of the bureaucracy that this brings, but much more so because of the cost that it will bring. There is not nearly enough money in British sport to do the things that we want for training athletes, footballers and cricketers at the lower echelons. Sure, there is tons of money in professional football—far too much in my opinion. If this law stands unchanged, it will put an unnecessary drain on both the human and financial resources of sports clubs and sports men and women right across the kingdom. I support the amendment.